User reviews

+ A good mix between classic Wu-Xiapian movies and time-travel humor. It never fails to deliver laughs or to impress with witty action. Scrolls, seals, ideograms and magic tricks dispensed by the terrific cast are used to serve both the action and the comic relief. No flashy CGI it's cool and discrete. (The audience burst in laughs when they did the old school 'white smoke' metamorphosis trick.)

• The film lacks a good editing though (a recurrent handicap in Korean movies). Despite the great acting of the cast, it tends to slow down when trying to develop the very secondary female characters. This is probably due to the presence of many Korean movie stars who always insist to get a lot of screen time for their characters even if that doesn't serve the storyline.

I'll give it a 8 because of all the good laughs and this very refreshing and magical atmosphere the movie provides. While Korea's grown famous for pushing to export crappy CGI movies out of sheer patriotism but this isn't one of them. Woochi actually delivers.

For once, I found the movie actually better than the underwhelming trailer. Woochi is an action fantasy comedy movie with one half taking place in the past and the other in modern South Korea. It's not traditional fantasy with traditional magic. The so-called goblins, only fantasy creatures in here, are actually beast-men able to take human appearance and you only really see two of them (maybe 3 depending on how you count). However, they're really well done and animated. The magic is of the taoist kind with "spells" written on little pieces of paper. Sounds lame but works wonderfully. I found it quite different than the usual and often a delight to behold. Wooji, the title character, is a very confident trickster mage who is a lot of fun and his introduction was a great moment. He's constantly surprising and I loved the character as well as his comic-relief sidekick. The 3 taoist monks were also quite enjoyable and got way more interesting as the movie went on. The ambiguous and stoic main villain had a lot of presence but the "goblins", although excellent martial artists, were bland in terms of personality.

The plot and motives, mostly exposed in the starting moments and in snippets afterwards, were quite forgettable and not really necessary for enjoyment. The special effects were very well done combining seamlessly CGI and real actors. It was even better sometimes than big-budget American movies. Not only that but there were several beautiful original sequences rarely or never seen before (at least by me). Some of those include going in and out of paintings, multiplication of bodies (think Naruto) and flying tramways. The action scenes were exciting and very cool but unfortunately the fights were often too closed-in and fast for my poor eyes. The comedic moments were funny and didn't turn the film into bad parody. I must admit becoming fidgety and my mind wandering more than half-way through as if the movie was too long or had lost part of my interest. I've seen movies that were as long or longer not thinking of when they would end as I did in Woochi. I had a good time watching this film and would recommend a rental to those who like somewhat exotic martial arts fantasies with comedic elements.

Rating : 7 out of 10.

Combining fantasy, adventure, action and humour to maximum effect, this lively Korean film deserves to be seen by as big an audience as possible. Writer/director Dong-hun Choi, best-known for his excellent con-artist films THE BIG SWINDLE (2004) and TAZZA : THE HIGH ROLLERS (2006), takes an unexpected turn into fantasy/action territory, but again shows why he is such a highly-regarded film-maker. Using the time-travel premise that was well-used in films such as ICEMAN COMETH (from Hong Kong) and of course HIGHLANDER, WOO-CHI makes the most of the material, helped along by a strong cast and superior technical crew. Dong-won Kang (from SECRET REUNION, DUELIST, VOICE OF A MURDERER, and the very funny TOO BEAUTIFUL TOO LIE)is excellent as the title character, making a flawed, at-times quite vein person likable. The great Yun-seok Kim, who impressed audiences in RUNNING TURTLE and inparticular in the brilliant THE CHASER, is perfectly cast as Woo-chi's main nemesis. Su-jeong Lim (from Park Chan-wook's under-rated I'M A CYBORG, BUT THAT'S OK and the outstanding A TALE OF TWO SISTERS)is perfect as the object of Woo-chi's affections. It's also great to see Dong-hun regular Yun-shik Baek (TAZZA / THE BIG SWINDLE / THE ART OF FIGHTING / SAVE THE GREEN PLANET) make a very welcome appearance. With $200 million Hollywood productions failing to make the grade, it is wonderful to see a film like WOO-CHI deliver such high-class entertainment on a fraction of the budget. Fast-paced, exciting, very funny, and full of vibrant, involving characters, JEON WOO-CHI : THE TAOIST WIZARD will certainly be one of my best films of the year. One hopes it will get a proper international release (unfortunately the director's other films have yet to achieve a deserving release outside of South Korea).

Woochi (played by Dong-won Gang) is a powerful wizard who has a lighthearted outlook on life. The story revolves around both Wizards and Goblins wanting possession of a magical pipe that will bestow great power upon them. Woochi's sidekick and best friend is Chorangyi, a dog who mostly walks around in human form, and can also shape shift into a horse. They are in search of a Bronze knife, as well, that would turn Chorangyi permanently into a human.

The visuals are STUNNING!! It is incredibly realistic. There's a lot of slapstick comedy here, and although I generally don't enjoy slapstick, the presentation was very good. This is an action fantasy comedy, after all. When Woochi is framed for murder, him and Chorangyi are imprisoned for 500 years. On their return, Woochi's powers are initially weak, and must still battle Goblins, who make their appearance in the city - still in search of the Pipe. The humor does at times get in the way of the action, but this is nevertheless a very entertaining movie.

The action sequences are well done, and the final act is action-packed with impressive visuals. I enjoy this movie every time.

This is actually a pretty fun fantasy/adventure movie that is also pretty fast paced. Although it's fast paced, the editing is not very well done and kinda choppy at times. The plot of this revolves around a guy named Jeon Woochi who is a Taoist Wizard, who is also very rebellious and boastful with no humble qualities. Almost the first half of the movie takes place about 500 years ago in Korea but after Jeon Woochi gets locked into a painting by three dumb immortal elders. But gets freed by the elders cause they need Woochi to fight off the goblins and so Woochi ends up in present time in South Korea. While dealing with this, Woochi also has to face off with another villain with wizard like powers who fought Woochi's master in the past. The main villain wants the flute well at least the other half of it which got locked away in the painting along with Woochi. Although for the most part this is a fun ride, the main flaws is how the characters aren't really developed well and the editing just isn't well done like I said before. Oh and the CGI is pretty crappy as well, some done okay though. Also there is hardly any scenes where Woochi actually seemed vulnerable, cause his powers seem infinite as long as he has his talisman papers. It would have been cool if it actually showed the limits to his power. I had a pretty good time watching this and some scenes were really cool. Overall Jeon Woochi delivers.

7.2/10

To make a long thought short: I've watched The Sorcerer's Apprentice first, and then the War of the Wizards the same evening. While the Disney flick was plain boring, I really enjoyed the Korean piece. Given, that the CGI is not 100% of the stuff, Hollywood's money can buy, it has all the rest I've missed in The Sorcerer's Apprentice. War of the Wizards has fun story, nice yeah-I'm-a-great-magician-fights (I loved the boss-fight). Summarised: The Sorcerer's Apprentice sticks to it's name: merely an apprentice compared to this lovely crafted Asian movie. Watch it if you like cool magician battles and have an eye and heart for eastern humor.

My DVD for big budget Korean fantasy blockbuster Woochi is a superbly packaged two-disc presentation loaded with lavish extras; what a shame then that the film isn't really worth the attention it has received, either from the Korean movie-going public or the DVD company that has released it here in the UK.

Although Woochi boasts a high level of invention throughout, and contains a few undeniably impressive moments of action, for every positive, one can easily find several negatives: the cinematography is impressive, but the CGI is inconsistent and rapid editing leads to confusion; the story is loaded with innovative fantasy elements, but they are introduced in such a random, disjointed fashion that the inevitable result is even more chaos and confusion; a memorable score competes against the movie's incessantly loud soundtrack; and the humour is, as often seems the case with Asian comedy, very hit and miss.

Just about worth seeing for the occasional genuinely outstanding set-piece—the 'multiple versions of the hero battling a pair of goblins' scene is particularly good—but at over two hours long, with much of the action being utterly incomprehensible, Woochi is far from essential.

Crowd Pleasing Film Would Make A Fortune Here In The States If Picked Up for Distribution-(and of course promoted)

I'm not kidding--the crowd i saw it with very much into it the entire time. (one dude was all like "that was the greatest movie i ever saw" i wouldn't say it was the greatest i ever saw--but it was a whooshing good time if you'll pardon the lame attempt at a pun.)

Film is about a wizard in the 1500's who's of course a bit of a sarcastic wise guy--he dozen't listen to his elders for shame!!! He gets tasked with battling and capturing these goblin demons that were set free from some ancient scroll--and ends up getting trapped in a picture (cause he can walk into pictures!) for 500 years--and ends up being released into modern day society where he pretty quickly acclimates.

Plot is very similar to Les Visitors (and its American remake Just Visiting) but with more f/x and slam bang but also the film plays it relatively straight (more going with the flow and accepting the situation and less "aren't our modernistic ways frightening and silly to you folks not from around here??? style jokes....although i really really enjoyed Les Visitors--that one was more about the men trying to comprehend what was happening and much less about the mission.)

Film will bring to mind plot elements from all kinds of other movies--at one point the hero's hand turns to stone to try and crush a bad guy--and that's right out Hellboy of course. (come to think of it the plot itself and the loosely defined bad guys are right out of the first hell-boy movie as well.) The army of mutants is pretty much out of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. (giant mutated rabbit and wolf and guinea pig are some of the goblins woo-chi has to catch) There's even the whole falling in love with the descendant or re-incarnation of loved one from the past time in the new time. (that's a bit as old as Dracula at least.) Woochi even runs smack into a film set and dozen't quite comprehend what the heck is going on (which i know i've seen somewhere else before)

Sometimes it really just dozen't matter if its all been done before though because the film is just so much fun all around. Woochi can bounce around into pictures, into advertisements, into display windows, he also has a sidekick who is essentially a dog in human form. (film gets a lot of laughs out of this) He can become an ink blot drawing at will!

Woochi is a tremendous amount of fun---and I can't believe some studio--even a low budget indie one--dozen't pick this up for a limited run and DVD sale stateside. With just the tiniest bit of commercial promotion--this thing could be a monster hit on par with The Host. (not that that was a monster hit--but you know what i mean--that film got a national release, a good ad campaign, and as such made some coinage because of that....there's no reason why that can get a release and this can't especially since this is a real crowd pleaser...overdone FX effects and all!!) WOOCHI!!!!!!!!

An action-packed Korean fantasy epic that charts the story of warring wizards transported to a modern city and the chaos they wreak therein, WOOCHI THE DEMON SLAYER sounds great when you see the story written out. Sadly, though, watching the actual movie is a different story altogether. WOOCHI THE DEMON SLAYER turns out to be a weakly-plotted comedy, full of irritating breakneck editing and general disregard for the usual conventions of cinema: it's overlong, rambling, trivial and most of all a bore.

The trailer sells this as a full-blown action movie but it turns out to be a comedy. Now, Asian comedies don't typically do well overseas, so I can see why the trailer was cut that way, but it's still a bit of a cheat. The humour isn't very funny and the script, including various evil wizards, travelling between dimensions, shape-shifting goblins and the like, is all over the place. The one thing the film does boast is some excellent special effects work in the form of above-average CGI, but the elaborate action scenes are spoilt slightly by the disjointed editing and general lack of cohesion. It's a shame, because if the comedy had been toned down and the drama upped, this could have been a very good film indeed; as it stands it's an overlong misfire.

A film with time travelling Goblin Rabbits trying to steal a pipe that will….I don't know what. This is Asian cinema at its best. A story built on eastern story telling. Young buck, wise old master, humorous sidekick (who may or may not be a dog of indeterminate gender) and a love interest with guts and gumption when needed most.

Following the apprentice Wizard Woochi (Don Wong-Kan) and his shape shifting Dogberry-esque friend Chorangyi and their hunt for the magic that will make Woochi's name and Chorangyi human.

Fight scenes of inventiveness that take the stylistic quirks of the later Matrix films and make them great, comedic timing and watch out for the reality of magic in the second act (21st century) as we find out what would really happen if you had to seek out a magic painting at two in the morning in downtown Pyongyang.

Betrayal, magic, drunken Taoist gods who can't seem to get anything right and a downbeat upbeat ending that wraps the film up in the brilliance of the eponymous hero's own imagination.

This is a film for teenagers, lovers of story and people who don't take themselves seriously.

Big bag of popcorn.

(spoiler free) I've watched a lot of Korean movies over the years - from the silly (Sex is Zero) to the sublime (Oasis) and enjoyed most of them, even some of the more marginal titles like Spygirl and A.F.R.I.K.A. But for me, and the group of people watching it with me, Jeon Woochi was a big bust.

The biggest problem I had with this movie was the terrible pacing, especially in the first 30 minutes of the movie where the timeline was not linear and the director did practically nothing to inform the audience that he had made a jump in time until wrapping up the scene and rejoining the main timeline.

Other problems included a major lack of funny - there was so much opportunity for "fish out of water" jokes, but the writers barely even tried. And it wasn't like the comedy was too subtle either, much of the humor in the movie was just too ham-fisted to laugh at.

There were also way too many fast cuts during action sequences - it made it difficult to enjoy the biggest feature of the movie: the excellent CGI. The director barely gives the audience a chance to focus on the contents of a shot before cutting to a new camera angle. I recognize these fast cuts are a modern Hollywood style, but it is still a terrible one to emulate.

The story itself was, as expected, fairly simple. But even then, the telling of it was too convoluted - due mainly to the confusing timeline.

I haven't given any examples to illustrate my criticism because I wanted to avoid spoilers as much as possible but still provide a counter-point to the misleadingly high rating (7.0 as I write this) and the other 5 or so reviews which all gave the movie exceptional scores. It was on the basis of that rating and the other reviews that I purchased the korean blu-ray and would strongly recommend that no one else waste their time or money the way I did. I suggest watching the older Arahan which has a similar "wizardry in the modern city" plot. I had a lot more fun watching Arahan despite its flaws.

Also, watch out for the korean blu-ray. It is poorly mastered - the black levels are elevated making the picture look washed out and hazy unless you have a fancy display that can correct the problem.

The Best, the Greatest, the Eternal, Woo chi!

Action packed film with an interesting story line, characters and in depth time line that you may have to watch more than once to keep up with.

I came to find "Woochi: The Demon Slayer" by browsing DVDs on Amazon, and I read the reviews for the movie, and it got really high praise, so I decided to give the movie a go; partly because of the praise, but also because I enjoy Asian movies and action movies. And I was hoping that this movie would be in the likes of "Volcano High".

However, I didn't know that about half of the movie would take place in ancient Korea, though it didn't make the movie bad. I had just expected it to be set in the present day, because of the movie cover and all. But having the movie take place in two different eras was entertaining enough, and it did work out well enough.

Now that I have seen it, I feel somewhat disillusioned, because the movie wasn't all that it was hyped up to be with the praises and the comments on the cover; "jaw dropping action" (24framespersecond.net) and "The no. 1 Asian box office smash hit!". The movie wasn't bad, but with praise like it had received, I had expected a bit more from it.

The story is a combination of action, drama and comedy, and it does work out well enough. And you do get caught up in the storyline, but it is not really one that will stick with you for long after you have ejected the disc from the DVD player.

"Woochi: The Demon Slayer" has really great effects, and there are some interesting scenes. The demons were depicted as a rat and a rabbit in semi-humanoid form, which was sort of strange to see, as that is not how I envision a demon to be, being a Westerner and all, but I suppose it might work out well enough for Korean mythology.

This movie is well worth checking out for the effects alone, but in my honest opinion, then there are better Asian movies available out there of a similar genre.

I caught this movie on Netflix. Had never heard about it before, and was pleasantly surprised. The characters are deep, the dialogue is fun, the action is fantastic, the story great, and the special effects OK. Most impressive of all was the solid acting, especially during the final fight sequence. Lovely stuff.

This movie brings me back in time, into a dark movie theater, at the very end of 'The Matrix', back in 1999. It had such a promising ending, and then they announced sequels that turned out to be poor.

Even though 'Woochi' is not a sequel to 'The Matrix', it feels like a movie that successfully went where those sequels didn't go.

Highly recommended for those who enjoy fantasy, action, and a bit of time travel.

Woochi is a fantastic film.

I saw this film in Chinese with subtitles, so i'm a bit fuzzy on the plot, but it revolves around a young, charismatic wizard and his magical escapades.

Great costumes, discreet acting, lovely photography.

Absolutely gross, horrid, mind-numbingly bad direction and editing.

If you can tolerate two hours of one-second long cuts, then this film is for you.

yep, my rating ins't the result of a slipped mouse click or Explorer bug, it's really 1/10; Woochi is a constant brain-damaging multitude of cuts, every single time an actor says a line the camera has to switch facing him - if Hitchcock turns in his grave a quarter turn per camera cut, you would have him spinning so fast you could power a city if you could just stick a turbine in there with him. Seriously, i dare you to watch this film - 10 minutes in and i had a headache. In the very first scene, there are four elder priests talking animately, and every time one of them starts a sentence (in someone else's mid-sentence) the camera makes a cut.

I propose cutting off the balls of the man who edited this.

Final rating - below zero.

Funny, witty, and pleasant to watch. The martial arts choreography done by Gang Dong Won in this film is awesome and watchable. He sure got the moves and his acting is remarkable. He sure justified his role as Jeon Woochi. If you're a big fan of Gang Dong Won like me, you'll gonna enjoy watching this and you gonna love him more. I've seen him in some comedy films and he sure can pull it of while I like him more doing some serious roles.

The visual effects are also amazing. South Korea can compete with Hollywood films. The actors are all on the A-list. A film you can watch with the whole family. So yeah, its highly recommended!